Advertisements are covered inside the Staples Center before Game 5 after several companies cut ties with the Clippers.

Photo: Wally Skalij, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Advertisements are covered inside the Staples Center before Game 5...

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The Los Angeles Clippers posted a message of unity on the team's home page after owner Donald Sterling was banned.

Photo: Associated Press

The Los Angeles Clippers posted a message of unity on the team's...

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Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka (9) takes a final shot, defended by Memphis Grizzlies forward Tayshaun Prince (21), in overtime of Game 5 of an opening-round NBA basketball playoff series in Oklahoma City, Tuesday, April 29, 2014. Ibaka's shot was ruled to be after the buzzer and Memphis won 100-99. (AP Photo)

The punishment lowered against Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling on Tuesday by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is the harshest penalty ever issued by the league and one of the stiffest sentences ever given to an owner in professional sports.

Sterling, 80, remains the Clippers' owner for now, but he is barred from attending any NBA games or practices, or participating in any business or player personnel decisions.

Silver's decision was met with applause around the NBA and the nation.

"Commissioner Silver, thank you for protecting our beautiful and powerful league!! Great leader!!" Miami Heat star LeBron James wrote on Twitter.

The Clippers' website had a simple message: "We are one," it read.

"We wholeheartedly support and embrace the decision by the NBA and commissioner Adam Silver today. Now the healing process begins," the Clippers added in a statement.

But Sterling's suspension isn't enough, the groups said, calling for Silver to meet with them to ensure that Sterling "remains an anomaly among the owners and executives in the league."

"Sterling's long-established pattern of bigotry and racist comments have not been a secret in the NBA," the statement said. "Yet until now, they have been tolerated and met with a gentle hand and a blind eye."

Sterling's comments were released over the weekend by the websites TMZ and Deadspin, and Silver said a league investigation found that Sterling was in fact the person on the audio recordings. Numerous NBA owners and players and even President Obama denounced the team owner's comments.

The fast-moving crisis was the first of Silver's three-month tenure as commissioner.

"We stand together in condemning Mr. Sterling's views," Silver said. "They simply have no place in the NBA."

Several sponsors either terminated or suspended their business dealings with the Clippers on Monday, though individual deals with Clippers players Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were not affected and will continue. Still, it was a clear statement that companies, like just about everyone associated with the league, were outraged.

"Commissioner Silver showed great leadership in banning L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life," Magic Johnson, who was referenced on the recorded conversation involving Sterling, tweeted shortly after the league's decision was announced.

Johnson's role on the recording stemmed from Sterling's female companion, V. Stiviano, apparently because of a photo of her and the Hall of Fame player posted on her Instagram account. That photo has since been deleted, but it raised Sterling's anger nonetheless.

"It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?" Sterling asks the woman on the recording.

Sterling has faced extensive federal charges of civil rights violations and racial discrimination in his business dealings, and some of his race-related statements would be described as shocking. He has also been sued for sexual harassment by former employees.